Monday, March 23, 2015

American History X - "Put Your Weapon on the Ground" - Not "Drop the Gun"

15 comments:

  1. Um, Mikeb, when I mentioned cops saying, "Drop the gun!" remember asking me where I got that, apart from in movies and TV shows, and I cited a video--posted here, by you--of cops in a real incident ordering just that? Are you now trying to counter that . . . by citing a movie?

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  2. Great movie Mike but how is it germane to your blog?

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  3. Kurt got it and explained above.

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  4. I have always personally practiced and trained with drop the weapon, as in this type of scenario you will fall back on how you train. If you get used to saying drop the gun you stand a good chance of saying it when there's any sort of weapon. A gun is always a weapon but the weapon may not always be a gun.

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    1. I have always personally practiced and trained with drop the weapon, as in this type of scenario you will fall back on how you train.

      Thank you MikeZ. Is that good enough for you, Mikeb?

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    2. After selecting the stories for this blog for a while, I would never want to be in the vicinity of anyone dropping a gun. And, like you Kurt, I really have no way of knowing what real cops do in the real world. I realize film scenes wouldn't prove anything, nor would the one live video of those LA cops.

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    3. And, like you Kurt, I really have no way of knowing what real cops do in the real world. I realize film scenes wouldn't prove anything, nor would the one live video of those LA cops.

      I see--so your one scene from a fictional film carries an equal weight as carried by "one live video" of real cops, at a real crime scene? Oh--and then there's the real cop who tells us that he commands suspects to "drop the weapon," as per his training. Your fictional movie scene carries as much weight as that, too, eh?

      I guess it would be a waste of time for me to ask, now that the preponderance of evidence points to cops being so unconcerned about the minuscule risk of guns discharging when dropped that they often command people to drop them, that perhaps a sentence of lifetime forcible disarmament as an "unfit gun owner," for the "crime" of dropping a gun, is, well . . . insane?

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    4. First of all, it's not a "preponderance of evidence." Secondly, as I said, I wouldn't want to be around a dropped gun. Would you, I mean if you had a choice?

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    5. Actually, the cop in this movie said both, Mike:

      “Drop your weapon! Put your weapon on the ground!”

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    6. It appears that I may have misread the intent here. To clarify is your issue with this post one between weapon VS gun or is your concern telling them to drop it VS telling them to put it on the ground? While I understand you concern about being around a "dropped firearm" the statistical likelihood of it firing from being dropped is far outweighed by the risk of the suspect maintaining control of it. And having been in the scenario myself it's not a time for wordiness or eloquence, it's a time for saying or doing what you need to in order to gain compliance and safety. And Kurt is correct that the majority of cops aren't overly concerned about the odds of a discharge from the firearm being dropped as the odds are slim. Even when you get the reports of a firearm firing from being dropped 99% of the time it actually fires when the person tries to catch it. That's why, in every training I have ever done we are taught that if we drop something on the range, weapon magazine or whatever to just let it go as trying to catch it mid air is more dangerous than letting it hit the ground.

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    7. Dropped guns sometimes discharge. I've posted dozens of stories to support this.

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    8. And almost all of those stories are based on the claims of the person who possessed the gun at the time. The same people who you are often skeptical of when they claim to have been defending themselves from a deadly threat.
      You did recently post a story in which I believe that the gun could have been discharged when dropped, but it was a single action revolver which by its design doesn't have the safety features incorporated into modern handguns. It's not often that the media goes into such detail though.

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    9. Dropped guns sometimes discharge.

      Just not often enough to be of significant concern to cops facing a suspect with gun in hand, your trickle of anecdotes (composed mostly, as SSG points out, of anecdotes that should probably be viewed with more than a little skepticism) notwithstanding.

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